Oh Sanada!, The Mission mmmPossible Quilt

I'm linking this quilt up with Sandra's (mmm! Quilts) monthly DrEAMi (Drop Everything and Make it) monthly party even though I now realize that this quilt may not meet all of the criteria since I made this quilt in stages rather than all at once like a true DrEAMi project is.  But I figured since Sandra was the main mmmPetus for this quilt being made since it involved sending me Squirrel Mail I'm sure she won't mind.

Since we became Blog Buddies back in 2017, Sandra and I have exchanged emails which included much laughter, Squirrel Talk and, of course, some fabric exchanges, which meant using the Drop-off Point Dayna because International postage rates are just so outrageous.  Last February, I received this brown paper envelope from Sandra which reminded me of the ones that Mr. Briggs or Mr. Phelps received their instructions in the beginning of each episode of the Mission Impossible TV series.  To protect the innocent, which would be me, I've covered up the addresses.  

Although there was no taped message in the envelope, I heard the Squirrel tell me that my  mission was to make a quilt with this lovely stack of Island Batik's Dear William 10" squares and the eight 2.5" strips of another collection which are on the left of this photo.  I immediately found some other batiks in my stash, which are on the right, some of which I received earlier from Sandra, so I could make a lap size quilt. After that, I didn't start making this quilt until the beginning of May because I wanted to finish some quilts the other Squirrels already put on my plate. I like to modify the DrEAMi criteria to include a quillt/project which wasn't planned but not made right away because sometimes you are surprisingly focused. One of the projects which preceded the Oh Sanada! quilt, was my Jolly Jinny Jungle quilt (you can read about it here) which was also a quilt made with mostly batiks and Sandra was also involved in my making of it.  It's funny that I don't work with batiks much and this year, I now have made two, both involving batik fabrics being given to me and both involving Sandra, the Master mmm-Nabler.

I purchased yardage of a Hoffman batik, black with sage green lines (lower right) to go with these fabrics since I knew this quilt was going to involve some rail fence blocks because of the 2.5" strips.

Based on the colors and the amount of fabric on hand, I came up with making four different 8"  blocks: Rail Fence blocks made with the black with sage green lines with the 2.5" strips and some of the 10" squares which went with these strips, Eight-Patch blocks made with the gold and navy prints, Boxed Squares made with either green or navy frames and Four-Patch blocks made with the gold and fuchsia prints.  I also made Eight-patch blocks with the black batik I had in my stash and gold prints but decided not to include them in the quilt since they look so stark next to the other blocks.

My original layout was to use a random layout of the different blocks but decided to do a controlled layout instead with the blocks which had gold placed in the center of the quilt surrounded by the green blocks.  I thought I need to contain the Four Patch blocks in one area since they did not look good when they were randomly placed throughout the quilt. You can see Oh Sanada! has an inner glow with the gold and fuchsia blocks which radiates softly towards the outside with the green blocks which has a touch of fuchsia in it. Surprisingly, I made enough of each blocks needed for this layout.

One of the nice thing about sewing with batik fabrics is that there's very little thread shedding which makes getting the top ready for quilting go fast. In order to back the quilt and there was no batik yardage in the backing vault, I had to buy yardage of a batik print which I found at Joann's.  It had most of the same colors in the top and best of all I had a 40% off coupon.  I quilted it with wavy lines around 1" apart and some of the wavy lines intersected along the seam lines. I used a thread from Connecting Threads in Cornsilk. The binding was machine bound with the black with sage green lines print. Oh Sanada! measures approximately 56" x 72" before quilting and I'm sure it's a little bit shorter now with all of the machine quilting I did.

If you're wondering about how I came up with the name "Sanada", it's the name I use when I have conversations with my Hubby involving Sandra and it's a combination of her name and Canada. It really is a lot quicker to say this rather than Sandra from Canada.  (Some of my other blog buddies had combo names also like Wendy, Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting, who lives in Minnesota so she is called Wendy-sota.  Believe me, these names help Hubby know whom I'm talking about.)  I included the "Oh" in the name of the quilt since I like to hum "Oh Canada" long before it was heard a lot lately thanks to the NBA Finals.

I had to include another photo of Oh Sanada! since the weather was so co-operative the morning I took photos.  Now that this quilt is finished or should I say mission completed, I think I'm hearing the Squirrel tell me that Sandra's beloved cat Bella should be my reward.  Doing this quilt, along with the Jolly Jinny Jungle Quilt and the Beothuk Star QAL so far this year, as well as the three other QALs Sandra hosted, I think my Get Bella Card has enough punches. With that being said, I'm sure I'm going to be receiving some lively email exchange from Sandra.  I'm sure if Bella had her way, she would be sending me Rufus, the dog, who may still be tormenting her.  Now that would be one big brown paper envelope for Drop-Off Point Dayna to handle. Seriously now, I would like to donate this quilt to a Canadian Charity/Cause so Sandra and I need to discuss options and to give Drop-Off Point Dayna a heads-up.

After I finished the top, Sandra posted her Luminous Layer which she made with, yep, a stack of Island Batik 10" squares.  And if she decides to do a QAL of this pattern, I most definitely will buy my own Island Batik fabrics, this time yardage would be nice.

Lastly, beware of Squirrel Mail!

Linking up with MMMiQuilts DrEAMi

Beothuk Star QAL-Celebrating a Famous Canadian's Birthday

If there isn't already enough birthday and holiday celebrations this month at my house with my birthday on the 14th, Father's Day on the 16th, Demando's birthday on the 18th and Granddoggie Daisy's on the 20th (it's like cake every other day-yum!), I also have a famous Canadian's Birthday, aka, Sandra, mmmi Quilts' father,  to celebrate on the 15th.  And there's no better way than to do this is by finally finishing my Beothuk Star Quilt in time for the celebration/Linky Party.

Depending on how you look at this, I've either completed the Trifecta or the Quadalupe of QALs hosted by Sandra, mmm! Quilts; nevertheless I've done them all and finally finished all them on time.  What I love about participating in Sandra's QAL is that I always used fabric from my stash plus her patterns make great use of my die cutter.  Also adding to the mmm-merriment are the wonderful sponsors she lines up. There's always ample time to construct the quilt but I've found that once you start the quilt you just can't stop, just like a good snack.

When the Beothuk Star QAL started back on April 3rd, I initially chose the fabric on the left but decided the fabric on the right would be better because of the stronger contrast.  Both fabric choices are Carrie Bloomston fabric lines.  With the exception of the Postcard from Sweden QAL, I once again improvised my background fabric by adding another print since I didn't have enough of the one print.  You can see that I added the khaki tan newsprint to go with the white newsprint which I think helped define the stars nicely.  It wasn't until the top was sewn that I saw my colors well represented the theme of the Beothuk Star being the red was for the Beothuk or Red Indian Tribe, blue for their spirit, yellow for their strength/hope, tan for the land/Earth and newsprint for the words that always need to be said or read to keep their memory/history alive albeit how painful it may be.  You can read Sandra's backstory of the Beothuk Star here.

I've already confessed to Sandra that I did not construct my quilt according to her thorough instructions since I used my die-cutter. So 3"x6" finished flying geese were made in place of some of the 3" half triangles and my quilt was constructed row by row but you wouldn't know it if I haven't mentioned it.   You can see that I was rather the daredevil by basting the quilt with straight pins and only having maybe one inch of batting/backing on all four sides.  I survived the numerous pricks on the fingers and hated it when the pins snagged against my legs. But the quilting was done under two hours.

One of the reasons why I chose to use the newsprint, besides it being very interesting, is that I could do KISS (Keep It Simple Sunshine) quilting by just doing quilting in the ditch and some diagonal quilting.  The Newsprint fabric is one of my favorite and I was very stingy in not wanting to use it for the backing so I used a tone on tone tan print which I won't bore you with a photo.  Really, I just forgot to take a photo of the back.  The binding was the tan newsprint though I thought of using the yellow fabric but it would have detracted the center star.

When I finished the Beothuk Star quilt Wednesday night, I knew the next day was supposed to be cloudy and rainy so I was thinking my photos for this post were not going to be so great.  Imagine my surprise when the Sun woke me up this morning so I quickly changed and went downstairs to take photos outside.  Since this quilt only measures 42" square, I knew there was no way the Master Quilt Holder was going to be able to crouch down to hide himself behind the quilt.  Thankfully, this past weekend he bought a new power washer for his Father's Day Gift, (yes, we buy our own gifts to avoid disappointment) and I knew the siding outside the front door was just cleaned with his new toy.  Also, I was fortunate enough to have green Frog Tape which I bought after reading Laura's Slice of Pi post about using it to hang up quilts outside on brick or siding, you can read about it here.  So, the quilt was photographed on the siding and it looked so nice.  Even when the wind blew, the green tape still held the quilt up. You can see some of it where the red arrow is pointing.  I think this wall is going to be my new favorite place to hang up my quilts for photographing.

Not to worry, the Master Quilt Holder won't be replaced by this roll of green Frog Tape.  I still going to need him to keep the siding clean with his new favorite friend, the power washer.  We're going have to give it a name.  It's funny that the power washer is the same color as the green tape.

I'm looking forward to joining the other Beothuk Quilts on the birthday of a famous Canadian.  Sandra did a great job with this QAL and I'm looking forward to her next one.  I already put my vote in for her to do one with her Luminous Layers Quilt, you can see it here.  I can tell you right now I'm going to have to find some pretty interesting fabrics to make up for the beautiful quilting that I know I won't be able to do.

Linking up with mmmi Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation, NTT.

August DrEAMis

DrEAMi

When Squirrels Scream

Make Me Now!

With August almost another month gone for the year and my To Do List magically transformed to a TaDa List, I finished two tops which I am saying are DrEAMis since they definitely weren't planned this month.  The Squirrels are alive and running around the studio, some happily hibernating in the project bins and some just lurking and prodding around me while I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Two Squirrels screamed at me during the past two weeks, my Slinky Quilt and my DS Strip Quilt, both flimsies and finished in time for this month's link-up hosted by Sandra, mmm Quilts.

First up is the Slinky quilt, originally referred to as the Firehouse Quilt since my oldest son, the Apprentice Quilt Holder, asked me earlier this summer if I would make him a new quilt for the Fire House and besides the usual requests of no pink or purples and appropriate prints, he wanted it warm and long.  I finished this top last night and let me say for such a simple quilt, I never used my seam ripper so much. This quilt measures 64"x92" and uses the one charm pack and yardage of Amy Ellis' Chic Neutral fabrics which were leftovers from another quilt made last year and my stash of gray Aged Muslin.  I had originally set side this these fabrics for another QAL and thought it would be perfect for the Slinky Quilt.  I didn't come up with the name for this quilt until after the rows were assembled and I thought the quilt looked like a caterpillar. I'll spare the details on the making this quilt for another post after the quilt is a finally finished which should be soon since Fall is in the air.

And finally, my last DrEAMi top which is truly a Squirrel and I named it Gee Whiz since this was totally an unexpected make and it also reminds me of a Gee Bend quilt.  This is quilt is made up of a charm pack of Denyse Schmidt's New Bedford fabrics and yardage of her Chicopee fabrics with some added black from my stash.  These fabrics have been on my mind for awhile and back in May when I came across them I decided I would finally cut them up into 2.5" strips and make another Ernie quilt. I changed my mind and made two types of strips blocks and couldn't decide on a layout even after ripping apart several times these blocks and decided to put them away. While finishing my quilt for this weeks's Fabulous Freebies Blog Hop, which involved only sewing down two sides of the binding, I happened to walk past my cart which holds my projects and saw the Gee Whiz blocks and immediately saw how these blocks should be laid out. Wouldn't you know it, I stopped what I was doing and put the blocks on my design board and sewed up this  top.  This top measures 48"x72" and again will provide more details on another post once this top is a finally finish.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to throw this top, meaning I'll going to back it with gray Minkee which I already have.  I was going to do this but then Slinky came along. 

I hope but am pretty sure I was not the only one for whom the Squirrels screamed at this month.  I'm looking forward to a Screaming Squirrel September.

Linking up with: mmmquilts, DrEAMi August Linky Party, Cooking Up Quilts, Main Crush Monday, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Oh Scrap!, My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday 

Throwback Thursday: Let's See It for the Red, White and Blue

I didn't have a problem choosing a topic for my July Throwback Thursday post hosted by Sandra of mmm Quilts.  For me, July is the month for Red, White and Blue and I have plenty of quilts made with these colors which also happens to be the colors of my family room.  I almost gave my Hubby, a.k.a the Master Quilt Holder, a heart attack when I mentioned that I needed to take a photo of each of the seventeen quilts individually in this photo but I only said that in my continuous and relentless campaign to get a clothes line in the backyard.  As you can see in my photo, I have two piles: the ones on the chair are what I consider Patriotic Quilts which were made with the many wonderful patriotic fabrics designed after 9/11 and the red and blue quilts on the floor which has floral prints designed by Jan Patek and Barbara Brackman.  I can honestly say that ever since I started quilting over twenty years ago, I've made red, white and blue quilts.

It was really hot on Wednesday, so taking photos of each of the quilts was out of the question.  It just was exhausting to round up all of the quilts together for the group shot in the hot screen room and I did not include the ones hanging on the wall. If I could be granted one magical blogging power, it would be to twitch my nose and have all my quilts laid out, perfectly photographed and then the quilts and furniture moved back.  Since I don't have magic on my side, I'm only going to post a photo of these two quilt blocks, one embroidered and the other foundation pieced which is something I still don't do very much of being the strips and squares quilter that I am.  I love the doggy star.

And speaking of strips and squares (almost), I wanted to share the story behind this Scrappy Flag Quilt made over fifteen years ago.  I made this quilt when I was working at our local quilt shop and this pattern was brought to our attention at the weekly Show and Tell by a customer who saw it on the then Worldwide Web.  The 9" (finished) flag blocks were made through an exchange of patches, four of them consisting of one 3-1/2" x 5" blue rectangle and three red and white rail fence blocks of varying sizes and layouts.

Here is the pattern, based on my quilt, which I've drawn on graph paper and, yes, I still need to get EQ back on my computer.  The one thing not noted on this pattern is there are two layouts for the blocks, one with the blue rectangle on the upper left corner, which is the traditional flag layout and one with the blue rectangle in the upper right corner as you can see the two block layouts in the quilt.  Depending on the size you want to make your quilt will determine how many of each layout you need to make.  

We did a patch exchange amongst the staff and customers and to the best of my recollection there was no set amount to make, just that you have to have equal number of patches and you got to pick as many patches as you made.  I remember the tables which were set up in the basement of the shop with all of the patches laid out and how fun it was to see all of the different fabrics used.  Of course, it was quite daring or fun back then for Lynn, the quilt shop owner, to use fuchsia in some of her rail fence patches (see arrow on the left photo) for a color pop.  I guess we could have exchanged flag blocks but it wouldn't have been as much fun putting together your own combinations.  If I were to make another Flag quilt, I would use the same fabric or the same tone, like a beige or gold for the bottom 2.5" strip in Patch D to give a more defined zig zag line in the quilt.

Here's a photo of the Star Spangle backing fabric, which I still have some in my stash, and the wonderful Star longarm quilting done either by Marcia or Sue.

I don't participate in any online block or fabric exchanges now but am wondering if a scrappy flag would be a fun exchange.  I still have a lot of patriotic fabrics in my stash and still have some small wallhangings which this post is reminding me that still need to be quilted.  I made this door hanging several years ago and included lime green and aqua, colors I thought were fun when I first started seeing them in modern flag quilts several years ago. As much as I love adding these fun colors to the mix, red, white and blue quilts will always hold a special place in my heart and home.

Linking up with mmm quilts' Throwback Thursday

Plus Playtime Quilt-A Finally Finished and A Parade

This Friday, (July 6th), is the final link-up for the Plus Playtime QAL hosted by Sandra of mmm Quilts where the many participants will be parading their finished quilts. I previously posted my flimsy last month and provided the details on the quilt, my fabric selection and the fun I had making the quilt.  

I didn't start the machine quilting until Monday evening after my granddaughter left after an almost week visit and I'm happy the quilt was finished in time for the linkup.  The quilting didn't go as quickly as I would like but that what happens when you decide to do straight line quilting 1/2" apart.  (Note for myself: don't do this quilting ever again for large quilts) The texture is nice but the distortion wasn't and squaring it up was a challenge. Let's just say, my Playtime Plus quilt is a friendly and happy quilt because it waves at you.  I'm sure the quilt will lay flatter once I spend some time blocking it with T-pins on the floor, which presents another challenge, keeping the four dogs off of it.  I still want to hang it up on the wall but will be just as happy to make it what the QAL was originally intended for--an adult play mat and no way a dog mat.

I am loving the colors of this quilt and am glad I found the gold confetti print which picks up all of the colors in the small pluses. I chose a royal navy thread for the quilting and the backing is a navy fabric with gold specks from my stash. The blue binding is the same fabric used in one of the backgrounds and yay for machine sewing the binding again.

Be sure to check out the other quilts on the linkup. I've already seen some of them and let me say none of them are friendly as mine (wink). And one last photo of my very happy quilt waving you Good-bye!  For those of us in the States, I hope you are having a very enjoyable holiday week and a Happy 4th.

Linking up with:  mmm Quilts, Cooking Up Quilts, Main Crush Monday, My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday